Chrysler's F-Bomb Rift Underscores Workplace Social Media Turf War

March 14, 2011

When an employee of advertising firm New Media Strategies dropped the F-bomb in a tweet from client Chrysler's Twitter account on March 9, it might have been chalked up to one of those things that can happen to someone on a bad day. Instead, Chrysler decided not to renew its contract with the agency.The dustup began when one of the agency's staffers tweeted from the @ChryslerAutos account: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f****** drive.”The employee was fired by NMS, and on March 10, Chrysler went a step further by saying it would not renew the shop's contract. But beyond that, the whole affair may have shined a light on a continuing turf battle between marketing and communications departments over who should own and manage social media.According to those familiar with the episode, the employee thought he or she was logged in to a private Twitter account rather than Chrysler's account. The employee had access, along with a team of other agency and client-side people, and wrote tweets throughout the day.After the expletive went out, it was quickly deleted, but had already been retweeted by a few Chrysler followers and spread to blogs.“Even if it had gone out under their private account, we would have had issues with it as it indirectly referenced a Chrysler ad and violated the company's policy about texting while driving,” said Chrysler spokeswoman Dianna Gutierrez.Advertising Age, an affiliate of Automotive News, was unable to determine whether the tweet went out while the employee was indeed driving.Turf battles over social media between marketing and communications have been an issue at the automaker—and other companies—for a few years. Early in the day after the tweet went out, Chrysler's communications team was grappling to get hold of the details of the episode after bloggers and media began calling, in part because Chrysler's marketing department controls Facebook and Twitter social media accounts that are “consumer facing.” The communications department has separate Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts that are meant to be “media facing.”Many companies say the divide only serves turf and budget wars, not the brands.“All that has blurred, so it's critical for communications and marketing to be coordinating and cooperating all the time,” said Stuart Schorr, vice president of communications and public affairs at Jaguar-Land Rover North America. One of the issues creating the turf war, he noted, is which department gets the budget.For Jaguar Land Rover, for example, all tweets and Facebook posts are cleared by a small internal communications group, Schorr said. Land Rover's marketing agency, Wunderman Worldwide, manages Land Rover's branded Twitter account, but all posts are cleared by communications. Only one outside agency person has access to the Twitter accounts, and that person is only a functionary to post pre-approved content.Communications runs websites, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts branded InteractiveJaguar and InteractiveLandRover. Those websites were created and are managed by Icon Interactive, Ann Arbor, Michigan.“My belief is that communications is better trained and oriented to deal with the real-time and back-and-forth nature of social media, but we have a very collaborative and coordinated effort with marketing,” Schorr said. “But it is such a big and popular area, with a lot of money going into it, that I recognize it is a pie that marketing and communications departments at companies are going to continue to wrestle over.”Chrysler would not make any marketing executives available to talk about the episode.On its website, Pete Snyder, CEO of MNS, said the agency “regrets this unfortunate incident. It certainly doesn't accurately reflect the overall high-quality work we have produced for Chrysler. We respect their decision and will work with them to ensure an effective transition of this business going forward.”In the automaker's communication blog to the media, Chrysler Communications staffer Ed Garsten wrote, “The tweet denigrated drivers in Detroit and used the fully spelled-out F-word. It was obviously meant to be posted on the person's personal Twitter account, and not the Chrysler Brand account where it appeared.“So why were we so sensitive? That commercial featuring the Chrysler 200, Eminem and the city of Detroit wasn't just an act of salesmanship. This company is committed to promoting Detroit and its hard-working people. The reaction to that commercial, the catchphrase ‘imported from Detroit,' and the overall positive messages it sent has been volcanic.” Filed by David Kiley of Advertising Age, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.Stay informed and connected. Get human resources news and HR features via Workforce Management's Twitter feed or RSS feeds for mobile devices and news readers.